States with legalized marijuana have experienced fewer opiate overdose related deaths. While this wasn’t the intended effect of legalization, it may be interesting to see what other positive public health effects legalization lead to. Here’s what you need to know from High Times’ article on the subject.

Legal Marijuana States Have Lower Opiate ODs

By The Stoner's Cookbook

Legalizing marijuana has led to at least one positive side effect—decreasing opioid overdose mortality rates. Here's what you need to know, from High Times.

Long-term Studies

By The Stoner's Cookbook

Investigators have conducted a time-series analysis of medical cannabis laws & state-level death data from 1999-2010. 13 states instituted cannabis therapy during that time.

Facing the Facts

By The Stoner's Cookbook

"We found that states with medical cannabis laws had lower mean opioid analgesic overdose mortality rates compared with states without such laws", concludes the study.

Consistent Across Variables

By The Stoner's Cookbook

The conclusion remained the same, even when excluding intentional overdoses and including all heroin deaths, regardless if opioids were present.

Unclear relationship

By The Stoner's Cookbook

Dr. Bachhuber, lead author of the study, says that although the mechanism of the link is unclear, the study finds "that medical marijuana laws and policies may have a broader impact on public health.”